Area youth cast votes for the first time

Silver High School senior Seth Hager headed down the steps at just after 2:30 Tuesday afternoon to vote in his first ever election.

But Hager, who moved to Silver City four years ago from Alaska with his mom Shelly Naber and step dad Chris Naber, after his mom got a job at the mines, said he wasn’t that excited.

“I’m kind of worried,” he said. “Because it doesn’t seem like either candidate is the optimal candidate.”

But Hager headed off to the Grant County Administration Building anyway to cast his very first vote.

“It’s my civic duty,” he said.

With no lines, and election workers ready and waiting to help him, Hager stepped up to a poll worker and gave his name and took a seat while he waited for his ballot to print out. He took it, walked over to a cubicle and stood as he filled it out. In just a few minutes, it was over. He walked over to the voting machine and submitted his ballot, as poll worker Rachel Valencia looked on.

“I felt like I did my part,” Hager said afterwards, outside in the hall. “I think everyone should go out and vote,” he said. “It’s what people fought for for hundreds of years, the right to vote.”

First time election worker Rachel Tais, who was working the polls at the Administration building, said about five young people mentioned that they were voting for the first time. The Silver City Woman’s Club also saw some first time voters.

“A lot of people — probably 10 or 15 — have come in and said it was for their first time,” said Gene Fortenberry, preliminary judge at the Silver City Woman’s Club.

Cierra Broyles, a senior at Silver High School, was one of those.

She said despite little enthusiasm for the options for president, she looked forward to voting for her first time.

“I waited 18 years to vote and then didn’t really have anyone I was excited about,” she said. “But I’m glad I can vote now.”

Aldo Leopold Charter School Senior Faith Diamanti agreed. Diamanti, who just turned 18 in September, was able to register and vote in the primary election in June, but said choosing a president was hard.

“I don’t really like either of them,” she said. “It was difficult to choose the lesser of two evils, or a third party knowing that they’re not going to win.”

Another 18-year-old, Maya Eilert, who is finishing school online, said she isn’t very into politics but believes it is important to vote, particularly in local elections because local decisions affect people’s everyday life.

But Diamanti said selecting candidates for the Grant County Commission was difficult because she didn’t know much about them and didn’t like how the campaigns were conducted.

“I did some research and a lot of it, I noticed is, whoever has more money in their campaign, they can do more advertising,” she said.

In addition to youth voters, casting their ballots for the first time, were also some older folks who mentioned to poll workers that they, too, were first time voters.

Dave Sylvester, who was manning the polls at the Silver City Woman’s Club and has worked the vote tabulator for several elections, said he saw a number of people who were old enough to have voted before but hadn’t.

“There were quite a few more 20-somethings than in other years,” he said.

That wasn’t the only age group casting their votes for the first time.

“There were even a couple of older people who came in, saying they had never voted before,” added Fortenberry.